What's the Ugliest Fish?

Dive magazines are full of gorgeous photos of beautiful and fascinating fish. Look at the pics brought home by any dive traveler and you'll see photo after photo of colorful undersea life. Not all fish have looks we want to hang on our walls, however. Outdoor Life magazine has a photo feature on their website with pics of 14 of the ugliest fish you may ever see. Check it out by clicking here.

What's the ugliest fish you've ever seen? Most remarkable for some other reason? Let us know! Post a comment!

Dive Pirates Fundraiser a Huge Hit

Dive Pirates is a national non-profit organization that exists to teach physically disabled people to dive. Did you know that Husker Divers is a chapter of Dive Pirates? That's right, Husker Divers has an adaptive scuba program, and we've partnered with Dive Pirates to work with our area's disabled community and get them in the water on scuba. Joe Tyler, owner of Husker Divers, is a certified adaptive scuba instructor, and several of the Husker Divers staff have been trained as assistants.

Dive Pirates recently held their annual fundraiser, the Pirate's Ball, in Houston, Texas, and raised over $50,000! You can read an article on the event by clicking here.

As you might imagine, it takes a lot of time, energy, and funding to equip and train a physically disabled diver. Whether they're a quadriplegic, an amputee, blind, or whatever the nature of their disability, all enjoy the freedom and weightlessness of being underwater. You can help! Call, e-mail, or stop by the dive shop and talk to us about adaptive divers currently in our program. If you'd like to help support these intrepid individuals, both good quality dive equipment and funds are needed and appreciated. If you visit the Dive Pirates website, you can easily donate to the Husker Divers chapter by clicking on the Donate button. You can even score some sweet pirate booty when you give!

It's Here! The Schedule for This Summer's Open Water Training!

Here it is, the dates we've all been waiting for. You can now put this summer's open water training schedule on your calendar! Can't wait to see you in Kearney!

May 23-24: The first Open Water certification dives of the season, plus Stress & Rescue and Search and Recovery classes
June 27 & 28
July 25 & 26
Aug 22 & 23

If you've completed your classroom and pool training and need to sign up for your open water weekend, please call or stop by the store. We have a limit to the number we can take each weekend, so please don't wait; the spaces do fill up. Also, it's important that you dive with us on the weekend you sign up for because we schedule our staff based on the number of students registered.

Husker Divers uses one of two different private sandpit lakes for each of our training weekends. The one pictured above is Broadfoot Lake.

Remember, if you're already a certifed diver, you're welcome to come out and dive the lake whenever we're there. And don't forget to contact the store about any specialty classes you'd like to complete over the summer. In a previous article in this blog, we told you about this year's Master Diver Challenge. Completing those Continuing Education courses and logging the required number of dives will enable you to complete the Challenge and maybe even win a dive trip! So come on! Let's go diving!

Kick Off the Season with a Trip to Oronogo

Are you ready to get started on your open water dives this season? Why not start by joining Husker Divers on a trip to Oronogo, near Joplin, Missouri?

Oronogo, located about 11 miles from Joplin, is one of the largest open pit lead and zinc mines in the world. Mining ceased in 1950, and water from natural springs and rain filled the pit. Divers from all over the midwest now enjoy the clear water, unique underwater terrain, and depths down to 230 feet. Click here for the link to the Oronogo dive trip on the Husker Divers website. While you're there, check out the link to the list of interesting sites you'll find in the mine!

Vis is around 20-30 feet, depending on depth, and water temps stay at 45-50 degrees below the thermocline. Surface temps reach into the 70s in the summer months.

For this trip, we'll drive down on Friday and make one dive Friday afternoon. We'll do three dives on Saturday, then one dive on Sunday before heading for home. There's a dive shop on the property for air fills, and nitrox is available.

The package includes:
Two nights at the Super 8 in Joplin, based on double occupancy
Air fills for 5 dives (there's an additional cost for nitrox)
Gate fee for three days.
Cost per Diver: $175. A deposit of $75 will reserve your space.
Transportation and food are not included.

Please reserve your space by Saturday, March 21st if you plan to join us for this trip. Stop by the store or call us at 402-420-6338.

The Oronogo site is deep and, below the thermocline, chilly, so in order to dive on this trip, you'll need to have a minumum of 20 logged dives and be comfortable with diving in colder water. If you have any questions, please contact Joe at Husker Divers - phone: 402-420-6338.

Seward High School Try Scuba

Husker Divers staff had a fun morning of Try Scubas today at the Union College pool in Lincoln. Seward High School students, 49 of them, descended on the pool shortly before 10 a.m. to don scuba gear and try scuba diving for the first time.

Dan, Amy, and Beth were the dive leaders for this event, and introduced the students to scuba a few at a time. After an introduction to the equipment and a few basic instructions, the kids spent most of their time on the bottom of the pool, experimenting with the weightlessness of being underwater. Toy torpedos zipped through the deep end of the pool as the kids played catch and tried to beat their fellow divers to those torpedos that evaded capture and landed on the bottom.

Afterwards, Joe Tyler, owner of Husker Divers, and Matt Rubenthaler, a diver who was an invaluable help with this event, along with Amy, Beth, and Dan, all said how great this group of students was to work with. All the kids were polite, had great attitudes, and seemed to have a great time. Husker Divers thoroughly enjoyed working with this great group of students!

Husker Divers and Scuba BSA

On Sunday, March 1st two of our staff led a Scuba BSA session. Scuba BSA is a non-certification program, and participants do not earn a merit badge. However, they do earn a Scuba BSA patch (pictured at left) they can wear on their swimming trunks to show the world what they've accomplished. They also learn valuable skills and get a thorough introduction to scuba diving, which will benefit them should they ever decide to go on to pursue certification.

Six Boy Scouts and their adult troop leader from Troop 812 in Omaha drove to Lincoln and met us at the Northeast YMCA. Before entering the water, the guys learned about the buddy system, DCS and other potential diving dangers, and the basics of scuba equipment. Once in the water, they learned some of the hand signals divers use underwater before ducking under the surface to take their first breaths on scuba.

In-water skills included basic mask clearing, two methods of clearing the regulator, and regulator retrieval from behind the shoulder. Participants also had to breathe from an alternate air source for 30 seconds. There are 12 requirements for the Scuba BSA program, which can be found here.

Once the scuba skills were learned, the group headed for the deep end, where they got to spend a few minutes swimming around, practicing buoyancy control and just having fun breathing underwater. All the participants had a great time, according to troop leader Jeff Saffles. "The boys talked all the way home about how fun it was," Mr. Saffles e-mailed us.

Beth and Amy, the Husker Divers staff who conducted the session, had a great time, too, and can't wait for the next Scuba BSA program. If you know of a Boy Scout troop who would like to schedule a Scuba BSA program with Husker Divers, please contact the store at 402-420-6338 or at huskerdivers@prodigy.net.